We just installed this massive machine, known by some as The Widowmaker.&nbsp; Actually called "The W. S. Hawker Dowel Machine&nbsp; a.k.a.&nbsp;The Moneymaker," this 100 year old machine is a 7.5HP, 3 phase dowel cutter from 1914.&nbsp;We've got big

Shane Speal show an ultra-simple "hack" to turn our&nbsp;White Pearl Strat Style Loaded Pickguard ($31.99) into a pre-wired cigar box guitar harness.&nbsp; Even the empty pickguard is used as a template.
Also featured in the video is our&nbs

Shane Speal stopped by this week and sat down with Ben Gitty for a little pickin' &amp; a-grinnin'.&nbsp; In this impromptu broadcast, they cover a diverse set of cigar box guitar topics like:
Diddley bows
Two finger octave runs on a 3-str

This is what happens when Shane messes around at work! &nbsp;He stumbles across a Lionel Richie classic. &nbsp;LOL!!! &nbsp;Tune your 4-string cigar box guitar to Open G and play along to "Easy Like Sunday Morning." &nbsp;Make sure to sing the "AHH A

Recently C. B. Gitty customer Jack Bowers shared one of his building techniques with us, a great way to add some extra stability to a neck without having to do more bracing inside the box. His method is simple - add an extension onto the bottom of th

Today I am working on the 700th instrument I've built in the last fifteen years. This is a mark I imposed on myself, that I felt I would never achieve. Like a goal in the distance I had to move toward it.Number 700 is a 2x4 Douglas fir stud that was

Thin-topped cigar boxes deliver magnificent tones to homemade instruments. &nbsp;The drawback is they may require a little extra bracing to become guitar bodies that are made to withstand the abuse of stage and studio.
In this video, Shane Speal

Turn your 2x4 Lap Steel Guitar into a console lap steel with this simple mod using three table legs! &nbsp;The simple tripod setup gives a sturdy foundation at just the right height for you to sit and slide away!You'll need:a&nbsp;C. B. Gitty 2x4 Lap

As it turns out, quite a bit - check out this guitar's amazing (and ongoing) story below.For a while now, I have been working on finding ways to help my homeless friend Connan down in New Orleans. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to auction this guit

by Shane SpealI've been selling cigar box guitars at street fairs and festivals for over twenty years now. &nbsp;I've learned that it's not enough to just make some guitars and put them on a table. &nbsp;You're fighting for the attention of passers-b

It was a special morning at the 2017 New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival when our own Shane Speal got to interview several cigar box guitar builders who attended. &nbsp;Instead of just asking a few questions, Speal actually took their respective

Getting cigar box guitar necks, pickups and all other parts just got less expensive this week. C. B. Gitty just announced sweeping reductions to worldwide postage. The free shipping level for U. S. customers has also been lowered to $84.99!Ben "Gitt

We've always got new product ideas in the works here at C. B. Gitty. From new kits and parts packs, to cigar box amplifiers and guitars, to expanded variations and options for existing products, there is always a lot "in the chute" waiting to be g

Last year, C. B. Gitty introduced the Psycho Knob internal distortion, an easy to install circuit that added fuzz effects inside your guitar. &nbsp;Now Shane Speal shows you how to hack the kit to become a standalone unit that can be used on all your

Buy stuff, get free stuff. It's as simple as that.We now have a Free Rewards program here at C. B. Gitty. You already buy your parts and gear here, and now you can get extra FREE stuff every time you do. Whether you're buying a few sets of tuners or

Here's Glenn Watt playing a boxless cigar box guitar! That's right folks, all of that sound from just a lid! This is part of one of the&nbsp;A. J. Gaither Arkansas Tenor cigar box guitars&nbsp;we build and sell. A. J.'s design provides a self-support

We have created a&nbsp;new single listing&nbsp;for cigar box guitar fretboards, which allows you to choose the wood and style (blank, slotted, fully fretted) that you want to buy. This new combined listing replaces the separate listings we used to ha

The new&nbsp;Gittylele uke kit&nbsp;is like a blank canvas to me. &nbsp;Not only is it a fun and easy kit to build, but all the bare wood on the surface just screams&nbsp;for custom artwork.I recently customized this uke by woodburning vintage advert

C. B. Gitty's own Farley Andreson plays her cigar box guitar. &nbsp;See the video below of her in action.Guest blog by Shane Speal.Learning how to play cigar box guitar, even badly, can increase the quality of the instruments on your workbench. &nbsp

Yesterday, I got the urge to build something new, so I went into my woodshop and challenged myself to make something within one hour. &nbsp;The time restriction made the project even more interesting and added an element of excitement.Here's the demo

Hey all, Ben Gitty here! Recently I took part in decorating the set for the CBS TV show Bull, starring Michael Weatherly of NCIS fame and Freddy Rodriguez. They needed the scene to look like the workshop of an eccentric guitar builder, so I loaded up

Heavy metal legend, Lita Ford has just been filmed playing a 3-string cigar box guitar in concert! &nbsp;Swamp rocker, Christopher Ameruoso posted this video on his Facebook page of the event...and we tracked down the actual builder of this guitar fo

Dear Gitty,I just thought I'd take a moment to thank you for your company's excellent service to me and my students as we explore making electric guitars using clay! Our middle school curriculum puts a lot of emphasis on sculpture and 3d art. I was l

Shane Speal goes in depth on building cigar box guitars with antique boxes, including bracing and finishing. &nbsp;He also shows a great idea of using apple crates (with all their original advertising intact) as fretboards. &nbsp;Parts used:C. B. Git

by Shane SpealI've been building cigar box guitars for half my life now... thousands&nbsp;of instruments in the last 23 years. &nbsp;As I approached Christmas building season this year, I was completely burned out. &nbsp;I didn't have any new ideas.

I've used this look on several cigar box guitars and they're always the fastest to sell:
Start with a Flor de las Antillas cigar box [$7.49]
The bridge cover is a Gitty Colonial box handle [$4.79/pair] that I painted with Rustoleum Dark B

Cameras were rolling at Gitty last Friday afternoon. &nbsp;Jason had reached final inspection with the ukulele kit he engineered. &nbsp;The kit will be completely produced in our New Hampshire shop and features a design that is highly customizable

One man's trash is another luthier's "parts hoard." &nbsp;In this video, we take a peek at the ever-growing pile of found objects at the Gitty workshop.There's just something about an organized pile of junk...especially when you're an instrument buil

C. B. Gitty sponsors the weekday broadcasts of Cigar Box Nation TV. &nbsp;You can watch these live at noon (EST US) at www.Facebook.com/CigarBoxNation. &nbsp;We've also archived some of the latest episodes right here so you can catch up.

During a recent Cigar Box Nation TV episode, Shane Speal divulged several different tricks, tools and "hacks" he uses in the woodshed. &nbsp;We've edited down the good stuff and present them here in three short videos.Repairing Paper Trim on Cigar Bo

It's time to go up on the mountain with cigar box zen master, Glenn Watt as he discusses his building techniques and design philosophies. &nbsp;This is an ongoing series of videos that air on Cigar Box Nation TV (http://facebook.com/cigarboxnation).

4-string silverware box electric bass guitar, made by Matthew Templin of Jemison, AL.Bass body is a wood silverware box purchased at a local thrift store for $2.00bridge is made from a maple cutting board found in an abandoned campertailpiece is a ca

Howdy Gitty,I've been using parts from you guys for a while now. Was really excited when I learned about the psycho knob. I want to send a huge shout out to Ben Gitty Baker for being so gracious in offering help to get this working correctly. Mr May

This has got to be one of the most insane amp builds/hacks we've encountered. &nbsp;Bullethead has taken an old school intercom speaker and loaded it with the Gitty amp kit, a preamp and even the Psycho Knob internal distortion unitGitty Parts:2.5W A

Hey folks! Nick again with the second part of my 7-20-4 build.Step 4: The BridgeThe bridge turned out to be a bit of a stalling point on the build.&nbsp;As I mentioned in the&nbsp;last article, I had settled on the&nbsp;3-string Gold hard-tail bridge

On my last trip down to Arkansas I made it a point to stop
in and see Bill Jagitsch (a.k.a. "Bluesboy Jag") and compare notes. We ended up trading boxes and I got
a Comacho from him that I thought would be good for Cooking with Gitty.I made a coupl

Shane films his first "What's In the Box" segment for http://cbgitty.com and shows off his cigar box guitar parts purchases. He has fun showing WHY he chose certain parts and what he plans on doing with them.

In this short video, Ben "Gitty" Baker and Glenn Watt walk you through the process of adding a panel-mount gain pot to one of&nbsp;C. B. Gitty's 2.5-watt amp circuit boards.&nbsp;Pop off the onboard trim potAttach the leadsSolder them to a&nbsp;10K l

Howdy folks! My name is Nick Lanciano, and I am one of the newer folks over here at C. B. Gitty. This is a build progress diary I wrote for the building of my second Cigar Box Guitar, a 3-String Electric Cigar Box Guitar using a 7-20-4 Cigar Box (one

When we came out with our&nbsp;Cigar Box Amplifier Kit, we never expected to see so many radical designs, such as this dual-speaker tweed amp. &nbsp;This is actually an easy project with only minimal soldering skill needed. &nbsp;You'll need a basic

Dear C. B. Gitty,Here are my first four builds after discovering some cool CBG’s played in public and on Youtube. &nbsp;[This was] shortly after discovering C. B. Gitty and how easy and affordable parts are to get and the fast shipping times. &nbsp;I

Check out this beauty. This is my 8th build and by far the best one yet. It has a cherry neck, real frets, and a humbucker pickup. It looks and plays great. Huge thanks to Glenn (Watt) for helping with my questions.Here are the CBGitty Parts I us

Dear Gitty,
My name is Keith Hicks from New Orleans, LA. I built this guitar with a
jatoba (Brazilian chery) neck, white ash fretboard and oak fret markers.
The fretboard has a 12" radius, 25" scale and the bridge is walnut. I
k

Steve Larson built as a gift for a friend’s teenage son who will be having open heart surgery later this month.He is a baseball player – the # 19 on the fret board is his jersey #.His name is stamped onto an Army dog tag and used as a name plate to p

A couple of weeks ago, Ben Gitty got creative out in the shop and built himself a tambourine out of a wide, flat cigar box. He wrote up a&nbsp;builder's diary/how-to guide of how he did it, and now it is available in the knowledgebase over at CigarBo

"Mississippi Mud Sparkle is that exact tone that combines the snap and brilliance of an old Dobro along with the growl of a snarling, possessed electric guitar." -Shane SpealThis cigar box guitar was recently completed by our own Shane Speal.&nbsp; H

The Mi Amor meets the Snake Oil Humbucker: A Killer Combo
It sounds raw and dirty.
A single coil pickup in a cigar box guitar has grit and a surly swagger. But for this build, the sound of a solitary single coil pickup is missing s

Originally a live Facebook broadcast on May 18. 2016, this video shows you a "behind the scenes" look at the C. B. Gitty workshop in Rochester, New Hampshire. See the tools and workbenches, get a sneak peak at soon-to-be-released products, and meet t

Can you make a guitar out of a non-wooden cigar box? Does it make a difference in the tone?How can you tell these boxes apart?We posed these questions to Ben, Glenn and Nick up at C. B. Gitty and the filmed this great live video. You'll hear two gui

Ever since we started live broadcasting here at C. B. Gitty, it's been a total Renaissance of ideas and new instruments.&nbsp; Just today, Ben completed the beautiful Frankenstein Timeclock acoustic guitar.&nbsp; It uses an actual clock face that was

Here's a great letter we just received from Roger Ring.&nbsp; He took our 4-Pole Pre-wired Pickup and used it in his latest diddley bow one-string instrument!Dear Gitty,Somebody probably has done this before, but I hadn't seen it. I call it the Gitt

Fender Lunchbox 3-string Guitar by Scott McGilliard
This is my build number 30. When I saw the Fender Lunch Boxes, I just had to build me my own Fender. Thanks Gitty for getting me started and keeping me building.-Scott Start with these Gitty ingr

Reduced feedback. Deeper bass response. And no more "quack!"I was complaining about certain tonal problems with piezo pickups when the idea for this standalone pre-amp came to me. It's deceptively simple... a $17 acoustic guitar pre-amp with a h

There's something special about the big, boomy Tabak Especial Toro cigar boxes ($9.99).&nbsp; Not only are they sturdy wooden boxes, but they have such a large face, that I was inspired to turn a bunch of them into double neck cigar box guitars.The p

Connect Church in St. Louis has become one of the earliest adopters of C. B. Gitty's Cigar Box Guitars in Schools Program by providing 15 Sunday school students with diddley bow kits.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lead by teachers, Dana Weigel and Chris Perstrope, the

Seven years ago, I started this small guitar parts business cutting & selling fret wire from my grandfather's workbench in my basement. That little workshop area is bustling again with handmade boutique soaps made by my wife, Dawn (a.k.a. Mama Gitty

We're serving up another great sonic buffet, this time with 'master chef,' Steve Larson of Hope Mills, NC.&nbsp; Here's his details on this incredible electric 3-string cigar box guitar:Build # 17 – this is a 3 String Electric CBG.• Flor de las Antil

The cigar box guitar above was built by Randy Lee Thomas of Cockey Creek Cigar Box Guitars.&nbsp; Here's what he had to say about it: I've built a few CBG's and this latest one turned out very nicely. Great service and parts from C.B. Gitty made it a

We just got this great submission for Cooking with Gitty from Harry Bodmer.&nbsp; We can only imagine how awesome this axe sounds. Here's his ingredients:I made this 4 string tenor guitar using a 1904 World's Fair Jack Daniels replica tin. I used the

We're starting a new series of posts called "Cooking with Gitty."&nbsp; Each one will feature your instruments along with the Gitty ingredients you used to create them.&nbsp; Submit pics of your instrument + a list of parts used to gittyfans@cbgitty.

If you want to optimize your time and resources, consider building guitars in 'batches,' much like baking cookies.&nbsp;For me, I have a particular guitar design that I developed and I strongly believe in. If I keep with this design, I can prepare 5

by Shane SpealDr. Frederick Frankenstein: Igor, would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?Igor: And you won't be angry?Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.Igor: Abby someone.Frankenstein: Abby someone. Abby who?Igor: Abby Normal!Young Franke

We just got this great video from Dana Weigel featuring the kids from Connect Church STL.&nbsp; They took advantage of C. B. Gitty's Cigar Box Guitars in the Classroom program to purchase our diddley bow kits at a discount for the church group.&nbsp;

Dear C. B. Gitty,I thought you might appreciate seeing this guitar that I made using parts acquired from your online website.ThanksMark S.We got this email a few weeks ago and the photos floored us!&nbsp; Mark has taken a wide assortment of C. B. Git

Big changes are always scary.&nbsp;When we moved the business into its current home, it felt like a blind leap. The costs, the work to get moved, the thought that we were biting off too much, that we would never need this much space, was almost overw

Bob Graichen of New Baltimore, MI recently purchased one of our Fret Saw &amp; Mitre Box Kits and came up with a simple way to add a depth guide. He cut a piece of acrylic &amp; bolted it to the saw to consistently regulate the depth of cut. This mo

Find this book on Amazon:&nbsp;“Fiddle Fever” by Sharon Arms DoucetPlunge into the world of the early 1900’s Louisiana bayou, where a fourteen-year-old cajun boy named Felix struggles to find a way to let out the music in his soul. After experiencing

We just got this fantastic email from Kathie Dinan about a cigar box guitar workshop in Dover, NH.Hi Ben,I just wanted to let you know that my husband and I offered a very rewarding CBG workshop for Winterterm at St Thomas Acquinas HS [in Dover, NH]

Why old coins make amazing decorative additions to cigar box guitars and other homemade instruments.
(Please note: while this is written specific to United States coins, the same concepts apply to the coinage of most countries that mint, or have

The young duo, Stolen Thunder was captured by the cameras playing our&nbsp; C. B. Gitty Cigar Box Guitar Uke at the 2016 NAMM show.&nbsp; Look for them at the :55 second markThese two are going to go places. video platformvideo managementvideo sol

It was a moment of magic:&nbsp; Last week, The New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival stage was filled with third grade students from the Encore Academy of New Orleans, performing a ukulele concert.&nbsp; Eight of those ukes were built by the children

Article in yesterday's full page spread in the print version of the Times-Picayune down in Louisiana! The New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Fest made the first interior page (in front of "The Revenant" coverage!) of the Lagniappe section.&nbsp;Thanks to r

We recently received this letter from Bob in North Carolina regarding our Front Porch Picker cigar box guitar.&nbsp; We thought it would be a great opportunity to share with everybody, especially since we are so proud of the instruments created in th

We can make all the parts in the world at C. B. Gitty, but it takes a true talent to choose the right parts and the right placements to make something special.&nbsp; Add to that, the eye of a brilliant builder and you have cigar box masterpieces such

Shane Speal shows some simple ways to get a clean look on your cigar box guitar using items from our Box Hardware category.&nbsp; These will make your cigar box guitars look more professional and give them that POP!&nbsp;We have links to the parts be

We're totally gonna steal these licks!&nbsp; Historian, author and all around Renaissance man, Charles Atchison just posted this video giving an overview of the main parts of Stairway to Heaven.&nbsp; (Which means he took an 8 minute song and condens

by Shane SpealI'm an electronics idiot. There, I said it! I suck when it comes to soldering and breadboards and all that crap. I couldn't wire my way out of a paper bag, if the truth be told....But then C. B. Gitty came out with a pre-wired cigar

The C. B. Gitty Gold Foil acoustic pickup is one of the most versatile and easiest magnetic pickups to mod for cigar box guitars. At only $14 each, they're deliciously cheap and I always have a half dozen of them in my woodshop at any time. (It sho

With his cigar box guitar built with breast cancer awareness in mind, Mike Boswell knows well the grace of a gift.The soulful, haunting melody of Amazing Grace hangs in the air. Mike stands back, grateful to witness the performance on a guitar he bui

Climbing over and sorting through mountains of goods, long since discarded and forgotten, she pauses to consider the life of each item that catches her eye. She imagines the past each has had, but more importantly, the future that could be.
H

In this video, Shane shows us just how much he loves our laser-cut acrylic fret scale templates, and shows off a great modification he came up with for them that makes them even more useful for cigar box guitars!

While at the Summer NAMM trade show down in Nashville, I got to meet Joanna Pearl, a rising star on the LA music scene (check out her site here). She wanted a lesson on the diddley bow and suggested a novel approach - she'd operate the pick and I'd o